John Rodney Bevege

John Rodney Bevege
(1934 - 2004)

John Bevege was born at Concord Hospital, Sydney, on 3 June 1934. His family lived in Maroubra. His father Frank Alfred Bevege was a fitter and turner and his mother was Edith Beatrice (née Bartholomew). He had two sisters, Eunice, a soprano, who worked in television in the UK then returned to Sydney as a newsreader with Channel 10. His other sister, Glenda, was a nurse who lived in Gunnedah in the latter part of her life.

His school years were largely during the War, money was tight, and he reported that, unlike most of his classmates, he was sent to school with shoes, but he removed these at school to fit in. His major interests were football and other sports. At Maroubra Junction Technical High School he’d developed an interest in bridges and dams but had not taken the required higher level mathematics. The careers adviser suggested that he should do a trade and nominated boiler making or carpentry. With support from his mother, and with some extra coaching, he embarked on the required mathematics to allow him to do an engineering degree and achieved excellent results in these subjects.

He applied for, and was selected for, a cadetship with the Department of Motor Transport to undertake an Engineering Diploma at Ultimo Technical College. He was required to go to college one afternoon a week, four nights a week and on Saturdays! He received hands on experience at Randwick and Wolli Creek tramway workshops. His employer required a 10-year bond!

He completed the course in the planned 5 years in 1956 and started work in the Transport drawing office, with his main duties being works to convert tram depots into bus depots. One of his supervisors was a Russian engineer, Ivan Petunim.

In 1957 he joined consulting engineers McDonald Wagner and Priddle, supervising the construction of sugar terminals, at a time when the industry was undergoing major changes with a shift from manual handling of raw sugar in large bags to bulk handling, and in the construction of new wheat terminals. This work involved extensive travel to supervise construction. One wheat project involved the extension of an existing terminal which required him to climb about 70 metres up an external ladder. As he neared the top, the top of the ladder detached form the structure, and fortunately he managed to get down safely.

In 1962 he joined consulting engineers Rankine and Hill in Sydney to design structural steel and concrete projects. He was involved in a project in Canberra, earthworks at Government House in anticipation of the filling of Scrivener Dam. He was most concerned that his calculations for fill were completely out, as the amount of fill received was far short of what was required. Further examination showed that the trucks were coming in half full but charging for a full load!

At the end of 1962 he went to the UK and joined consulting engineers JD and DM Watson who were involved in the design of sewerage plants. This was clearly not at all satisfying, and he noted that UK salaries were very low compared to Australia. He resigned after three months and, with the UK being depressed at the time he faced two months of unemployment, in the middle of winter and had to skimp on feeding money into the electricity meter in his accommodation to pay for heating!

He then joined Sir William Halcrow and Partners who were involved with a firm of consultants in South Africa. In the UK he was involved in projects including a pumping station, rice mills, sea locks the Clywedog Reservoir and an irrigation system in Upper Volta.

He noted that that the work ethic in UK consulting firms was far lower than in Australia. In firms he’d worked for in Australia, it was common to work 70 hours a week, without overtime, whereas in the UK, it was strictly 40 hours a week. He also noted that in Australia engineers would do the calculations and draftsmen would prepare drawings. In the UK engineers did both tasks. In some cases, the engineers’ drafting skills were such that their work would be traced to make it usable!

He then transferred to their associate in South Africa as senior structural engineer and one project he was involved with was the Orange River water scheme which included a shallow, 52 mile (83 km) tunnel. The tunnel had been specified with a 450 mm reinforced concrete lining. John proposed that, with the use of rock anchors, the lining could be reduced to 250 of unreinforced concrete, which was adopted with considerable savings.

In 1966 he returned to Sydney to work for Crook Michell Peacock and Stuart. Their work included the design of mining and materials handling projects including a crushed coke storage bin and a pelletising plant. For one of these projects, he’d done manual calculations taking some weeks and had then done the same calculations using a computer, which he considers was the first use of a computer for this task in Australia. The calculation took 20 minutes and apparently produced a nonsense solution. Some refinement of the program ended up producing a sensible result.

In 1967 he joined Planner West and Partners and was involved in the design of wheat handling projects as well as commercial and residential projects.

In 1969 he established his own engineering consultancy and renewed his relationship with his one-time mentor Ivan Petunim as one of his staff, which later also included a draftsman. Projects undertaken include building structures, foundations for major structures and conveyor systems. Unfortunately, work started to dry up a few years later and he took on work as a part time lecturer at Ultimo Technical College.

From 1992 to 1996 he worked as a consultant to Woollahra Council responsible for checking engineering designs for buildings. He was very critical of the standard of submissions he saw in this job, with a large number of deficient designs, designs which didn’t comply with standards and designs which didn’t consider some significant factors which should have been considered. He noted that Clause 31 of the Local Government Act required Councils to approve plans but many Councils seem not to employ qualified of experienced engineers for this task. He also noted that the adoption of NPER 3 should have assisted in improving this situation.

John Bevege married Helen Cassimaty in 1967 and they had two children, Alison and Alister.

He died on 21 August 2004.

Membership of Professional Bodies

1. The Institution of Engineer Australia

2. The Institution of Structural Engineers – London

3. Association of Consulting Engineers Australia

4. Association of Consulting Structural Engineers of NSW

5. The Council of Engineering Institutions (London) Chartered Engineer

Data used in the preparation of this document:

1. Engineering Heritage Sydney Committee oral history, tape held by State Library of NSW and a summary of this tape.

2. CV dated February 1995.

3. Resume of projects undertaken by his own consulting practice.

4. Practice General Description.

To access an oral history interview with John Rodney Bevege please use this link:'

https://heritage.engineersaustralia.org.au/wiki/Oral_Histories_Sydney